We've just published our Olympus 25mm f/1.8 lens review, and this lens is the latest addition to Olympus' high quality, budget-friendly fast prime lens family. Olympus shooters who've been craving a fast, 50mm-equivalent prime lens have their wishes granted with this new lens. It's fast, affordable and produces excellent images. The straightforward design with 9 elements in 7 groups, including 2 aspherical elements, as well as a 7-bladed rounded aperture makes for high-quality images all in a small, lightweight and solid package.

With outstanding sharpness, even wide-open, as well as minimal CA, vignetting and distortion, the new 25mm f/1.8 is a very solid performer that produces excellent images. It feels solid and well-balanced on big and small Micro Four Thirds cameras, alike, and its compact size and minimal weight make it an excellent everyday, go-anywhere fast prime for portraits and low-light shooting. Like other Olympus Micro 4/3 lenses, this new lens also has super-fast (and near-silent) AF performance making it great for things like street shooting and other fast-moving subjects, as well as video recording.

This fast, solid-feeling and very compact prime lens is currently available for pre-order in either black or silver at a very budget-friendly $399.99 at Amazon, Adorama, and B&H (black, silver), and includes front and rear lens caps, a bayonet-mount lens hood, as well as a decorative ring to cover the lens hood threads. By purchasing this lens, or any other product, at one of our trusted affiliates, you help keep these reviews coming!

In the meantime, check out some sample photos Rob, our lens technician, and I shot with this lens below. You can view more sample photos, plus download the full-resolution files, over at our Flickr page.